Transgender transitional services will be offered to Bradenton employees

As of Jan. 1, the city of Bradenton will offer its employees the option to choose a health insurance plan that will allow full transgender transitional services, including surgical alteration.

The item is expected to be considered Wednesday by the city council.

“No, we don’t have to or else we aren’t going to get federal funds,” said city administrator Carl Callahan. “There is some government pressure, but it’s highly recommended and most people are doing it anyway. It’s not a significant cost because so few people go through the entire three-year process.”

The policy will address that three-year process in three steps. Callahan said the first step is for the employee to dress and act as their preferred gender for 12 consecutive months. The insurance would kick in at that point to cover hormone therapy and the mandatory counseling requirements for the next 12 months. In the third year, surgical alteration plans can begin.

Callahan said the issue was not raised by any city employees. The city’s insurance committee, consisting of Florida Blue and K&P Benefits Consultants, made the recommendation. If an employee chooses the new health care option, the costs “would be borne by the city in conjunction with the individual’s choice of insurance plan,” according to the memorandum to be voted on by the council.

Estimated costs range from $7,000 to $50,000 depending on which gender transition is being chosen and if the individual completes the entire three-year process leading to surgical alteration.

The Affordable Care Act helped ease discriminatory practices by requiring insurers and medical professionals to provide transgender patients with the same care as everyone else. For example, if a policy pays for a woman to receive hormone therapy for menopause, it must also pay for a transgender person to get the same treatment. However, it goes one step further in mandating medical treatment include care for their gender “assigned” at birth, as well.

Transitional services were not required, but the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services coined new terminology of “gender dysphoria,” which is described as a mental health condition requiring treatment for someone having a “mismatch between their birth sex and their internal sense of gender.”

Under such a diagnosis, transitional services could be required by an insurer as a preexisting condition. DHHS reports that a lack of treatment for gender dysphoria can lead to depression, substance abuse and an “increased risk of suicide.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2016 at 11:44 AM with the headline "Transgender transitional services will be offered to Bradenton employees."